Turn your little sweetie or rough-and-tumble guy into a cupcake for Halloween.

A cupcake is an unusual costume that steers away from scary creatures and the latest movie or cartoon characters that many other children will wear for Halloween. Your 2-to-5 year old will easily understand what her costume is and will love the colorful idea. Your adult friends will giggle with you about turning your little devil into a sweet little cupcake. Rather than spending a lot of money on a child's Halloween costume that your little trick-or-treater will outgrow quickly, you can create an inexpensive homemade costume with comfortable knit or fleece pants and a hoodie. So, get busy and create a sweet costume for your own little sweetie.

Choose between brown sweatpants or knit pants for a chocolate cupcake or white or yellow for lighter colored cupcakes, to create the bottom part of the costume.

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Fasten a contrasting color of ribbon from the waistband or inseam to the bottom edge of the legs with a glue gun to create the look of a fluted cupcake paper. Glue the ribbon in several places: vertically, on the front, sides and back of the pants.

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Draw sprinkles, shaped candies or frosting stripes on the fleece or lightweight hoodie from the neck down to the waist edge and the wrists, using paint pens or permanent markers. This will become the frosting or topping of the cupcake costume, so use a pastel or bright color of hoodie.

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Sew or glue some brightly-colored buttons and pieces of rick-rack trim among the painted areas of the hoodie.

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Cut the hood off a used red fleece or knit hoodie to top the cupcake with a cherry. Stitch or glue the red hood over the existing one on the hoodie. Sew or glue a piece of brown paper bag or brown rick-rack onto the top center of the red hood for a cherry stem.

Buy inexpensive clothing or check the thrift stores for used ones, since the costume will probably only be worn once or twice.Make a cute sign for girls or young toddlers to attach to their costume. Write on a piece of poster board, "Mommy's Little Cupcake," and pin or tape the sign onto her chest area.Omit the red from the hood, and let your child wear a ski mask or Halloween mask of a favorite character that will look like a cupcake topper similar to those on store-bought cupcakes.

Don't attach buttons to the costume if a young toddler will be wearing it, as buttons can be a choking hazard.Use strips of reflective tape in place of, or in addition to, the ribbons on the cupcake pants if you plan to trick-or-treat in a busy area.